Nightmare
by Vampire Smile
Summary: After the first game Joshua needs a new Conductor. A mysterious stranger shows up with a group of Reapers, asking for the position. Joshua accepts, but the mysterious stranger may have other plans besides being a Conductor.
1. The New Conductor

VS: Alright, I had this idea in my head for two villains, and this story came out of it.

Chapter 1, The New Conductor:

Joshua sighed, he needed a new Conductor. Currently he was sitting in Miyamoto's old room, the Dead God's Pad. He knew a new Game would be starting soon, and he needed a Conductor. What he didn't know was that he was being watched.

---

Neku looked around for his friends, he had been sitting at the Statue of Hachiko for fifteen minutes, and Beat, Rhyme, and Shiki were all missing.

"Hello, you must be Neku." The voice of a young woman said, the voice came from somewhere behind Neku, and he didn't recognize the voice. Neku instantly turned to see who spoke to him, but saw no one.

"Over here." The woman said after giggling. Neku felt a hand touch his shoulder from behind, and saw that it belonged to a young woman. She looked to be eighteen, and wore a black and white Lapin Angelique dress, with black knee-high socks and black shoes. She had blonde hair that split off into two pigtail with pink streaks in them, and black eyes. In her other hand she held a pistol with a silencer on it.

"Who are you?" Neku asked.

---

A man walked up to Joshua, he was wearing a Pegaso Atelier suit, with a red tie. His hair was black, slicked back with a widow's peak. He had red eyes, and he looked very relaxed.

"You're looking for a Conductor?" The man asked Joshua.

Joshua jumped out of his seat when he heard the man. "How did you get in here?" Joshua asked the man suspiciously. The man chuckled. "I have my ways…" He responded. "But my reason for coming here is to apply for the position of Conductor. My name is Ketsueki Mikoto, I used to be a Conductor, but I grew bored of y city, and I came here with a few of my trusted allies. You need a Conductor, and I need a job, so why not let me help you?" The man explained to Joshua.

Joshua considered the offer for a few seconds, he didn't trust Ketsueki, but he was in a bad position. After a little while of thinking he decided to accept the offer, but he would watch Ketsueki carefully.

"Alright," Joshua extended his hand. "I'm Yoshiya Kiryu, but you can call me Joshua." He said. Ketsueki shook Joshua's hand, he smiled, not a happy smile, but a devious one.

---

Uzuki and Kariya were walking through the streets of Shibuya, under the bridge in the UG.

"A new game is starting soon, you two should be looking for new players." A voice said from behind them. The two turned around, they saw a man with puffy black hair that went down to his back, and he had a black mustache and goatee. He was wearing a black button-up shirt that was only buttoned up to the middle of his chest, dark purple pants, and black dress shoes. "After all, that's pretty much the only thing you two are good at."

Uzuki was mad now. "Who the hell do you think you are!?" She asked the man. The man chuckled.

"So quick to get angry… You may call me Albatross." The man said to Uzuki.

"What kind of stupid name is that?" Uzuki asked. She looked to Kariya for support, but saw he had already walked away. Uzuki looked back towards the man, but he was gone. Uzuki ran up to Kariya.

"Why'd you leave me behind like that?" She asked angrily. Kariya shrugged, "I just didn't feel like dealing with him." he responded. Meanwhile, Albatross was watching them from the roof of a nearby store. A mysterious figure walked up next to him, he seemed to be made entirely from black smoke, with two glowing red eyes.

"What should we do about them?" Albatross asked the other man.

"They can't turn into Noise… Just kill them." The mysterious figure replied. The smoke man walked away, disappearing as he walked.

"Well this should be interesting…" Albatross said to himself, slightly smiling.

---

"I'd like to pick the new Game Master." Ketsueki said to Joshua.

"Alright, who do you have in…" Joshua was cut short by the breaking of a door. Stepping through the door was a large man, with messy black hair and green eyes. The man was wearing a dark green jacket that was completely zipped up, two handcuffs as bracelets with broken chains. He was also wearing dark camo pants and military boots.

"My name is Akihiro Yoshita." The man said, then offered his hand to Joshua. Joshua shook Akihiro's hand. "My name is Joshua." He said. "You're the new Game Master?


	2. Drain

VS: Thanks to my first two reviews Chou and James Firebrand

Chapter 2, Drain:

"You're Neku, you started out as a moody little emo, then you fell for your first friend Shiki. You didn't care when a young girl died, you were betrayed, killed, and had to save a city you hated. I only hope that you can be as interesting in this game." The girl said to Neku.

Neku looked shocked. "How do you know that about me?" He asked her.

"I had to research your story, Ketsueki is interested in you, and now I am too." The girl said to Neku.

"Who's Ketsueki? And who are you?" Neku aksed.

"My name is Kurohime Sasaki, and you'll meet Ketsueki eventually." The girl, Kurohime, said to Neku.

"Right, well I'll just be leaving." Neku said, then turned around and tried to run away.

Before Neku could get very far he heard a boom and felt pain in his stomach, and he remembered Kurohime had a gun. Neku did his best to hobble away while he bleeding, but Kurohime shot him in the foot, making him fall to the ground. Neku turned over, and saw Kurohime walk over to him and step on his stomach, then point her gun at his head.

"You know, we have your friends for a future entrance free, unless you want to abandon them." She said.

"Bi..." Neku couldn't finish the insult, because Kurohime shot him in the head.

---

Ketsueki was watching Joshua, the Composer was preparing for the next Reaper's Game. Kurohime walked into the room, she now had Reaper's wings.

"Neku is in the Game now." She said to Ketsueki.

"You killed Neku!?" Joshua asked. "I didn't want him to be in the Game again."

"So you want go with our plan. Kurohime, if you would…." Ketsueki said.

Kurohime walked up to Joshua, whistling while she walked, then split into three. The clones rose into the air and put their hands together, spider webs shot out of their hands and covered Joshua. Joshua broke free, and then used his lasers to destroy the two clones. Kurohime floated back down, then fell to the ground. Ketsueki dashed towards Joshua, and pointed at him. Red strings that seemed to be made of blood hit Joshua, and started draining him of his energy. Joshua tried to use his lasers to kill Ketsueki, but the lasers barely hurt him.

"I'm draining you of your power so…" Ketsueki said, then punched Joshua in the face.

Joshua stood up, and he made a truck fall on top of Ketsueki. Ketsueki destroyed the truck, and stood up.

Kurohime snuck up behind Joshua,then touched his shoulder, turning him into a stone statue. Kurohime giggled, and then touched the statue and Joshua's arms raised to the side and his legs joined together.

"I guess that makes you the Composer too?" Akihiro asked, since he was confused.

"In a way… The Composer will not participate in this game." Ketsueki explained to his less intelligent partner.

"I wonder how Albatross is doing… Probably making enemies." Kurohime said.

---

Albatross jumped off of the roof in front of Kariya and Uzuki.

"Change of plans, turns out I need to kill you. You weren't very useful anyways." Albatross said to the duo.

Uzuki got mad, and shot Albatross with a Force Round. Once it hit Albatross he turned into six albatross noise with purple and blue Noise wings. The Albatross flew at Uzuki, one hit her in the stomach, knocking her to the floor. The other five flew at Kariya, but he created an electric barrier around himself that killed one of the Albatross and blocked the other four. Uzuki shot flowers at the birds, killing a second one. The other four birds circled around her, cutting her with their wings, before flying into the air, two dive-bombed Uzuki while the other two went after Kariya. Kariya and Uzuki dodged, making the Albatross smash into the floor. When the birds got up they had merged together to become two larger Albatross Noise. The two both flew down at Kariya, cutting him with their wings, then turned around to cut him again. Kariya charged up energy before releasing six shots that hit the birds. Uzuki shot a homing flower that shot one of the birds, destroying it.

The final Albatross flew into the air, and just floated. Kariya once again charged up energy and threw a big ball of energy that hit the Albatross, causing it to explode in a flurry of black feathers. The feathers floated into the shape of a human, before becoming Albatross.

"You two are a lot weaker than I thought. He'll have no trouble killing you." Albatross said.

"We beat you!" Uzuki shouted.

"Oh really?" Albatross asked rhetorically.

A ball of purple and blue energy formed in Albatross' hand, two rings of energy swirled around it in an X shape. Albatross threw the energy ball at the two Reapers, causing a large explosion.

---

"Not this again." Neku said while sighing.

Neku was back to the Crossing, the problem was no one could see him, and he was holding what looked the Player Pin, but the skull now had vampire teeth. Neku looked around, he saw Sota and Nao.

"I thought you guys were erased." Neku said to Sota and Nao.

"That's not a nice way to treat your friends." Sota said. "And I have no idea how we got back." He explained.

"Does anyone not have a partner!?" Neku shouted, he ran from attacking Noise towards the Statue of Hachiko. Neku looked behind him, Sota and Nao were busy fighting Noise and couldn't help him.

"We're partners now." An unfamiliar voice said to Neku.

Neku turned around to kill the Noise, a Dixiefrog and a Mosh Grizzly. Neku took out his Lightning Rook pin and electrocuted the Dixiefrog, then used his Pyrokinesis pin to burn the Mosh Grizzly.

Neku's partner was a boy with black hair and red eyes, wearing an orange hoodie with the hood up, blue shorts, and black shoes. Neku's partner was carrying a crowbar, which he swung at a charging Dixiefrog, destroying it in one swing. The boy ran at the Mosh Grizzly, the Noise swung its claw at the boy, but he blocked with his crowbar. The Mosh Grizzly attempted to punch the boy but he jumped into the air and swung his crowbar down, instead of bashing the grizzly the crowbar went straight through the Noise.

"Thanks for the help, my name's Masaru Nakamura." The boy, Masaru, offered his hand to Neku.

After a pause Neku shook Masaru's hand.

"Are you a Reaper?" Neku asked after seeing Masaru's hood.

"No, I'm a Player. I died from… A fall." Masaru said.

"Well I was killed by a psychopath." Neku said coldly.

_VS: So sorry about that, I tried to fix it, so at least there's a fight and Kurohime just snuck up behind the weakened Joshua._


	3. Day 1

_VS: Alright, nothing interesting to say. Oh wait: I am having some trouble writing the fights for this story, I feel like the Pin system works for a game but not for fight scenes. I'll keep going though._

Chapter 3, Day 1:

"So your name is Neku?" Masaru asked Neku.

"Yeah." Neku replied, sounding a little emo again.

"Well it looks like you use pins. I use this pipe I found, but I can change it into a blade when I need to, it's pretty cool." Masaru said, while he was speaking he was examining his weapon.

"That's great…" Neku said.

Suddenly there were two simultaneous beeps, meaning the objective had been texted.

"Get to the Crossing? Too easy." Neku said.

"Alright then, let's go." Masaru said.

Neku and Masaru walked towards the Crossing, which wasn't very far away.

---

"So Ketsueki, what do you have planned for Joshua?" Kurohime asked.

"We're taking him to our new base, this place won't work for what I plan on doing." Ketsueki replied.

Ketsueki picked up the statue of Joshua and walked out of the Dead God's Pad, followed by Kurohime and Akihiro. Together they walked out of the Shibuya River and through the streets of the Shibuya UG. They kept walking until they reached a back alley with a half-finished building. The building was supposed to be a church for Shibuya, but for whatever reason it was left unfinished. The church was missing a good chunk of the roof and there were plenty of holes in the brick building. It was white, the door was yellow, and the roof was brown. There was a cross above the door. Ketsueki went into the church, and set the stone Joshua in front of the large cross in the center of the room.

"Kurohime!" Ketsueki shouted.

Kurohime walked into the room and looked around, it was a medium-sized building, the walls were white with golden candles lining them, and the pews were brown like the roof. In the center of the room there was an altar in front of the cross and Joshua statue. Kurohime approached the statue and once again tapped Joshua on the shoulder, this time he merged with the cross, appearing to be crucified on it.

"Alright, that was fun." Kurohime said, before leaving the church, not followed by Ketsueki.

"I hope you know we'll be staying here." Ketsueki said, sounding a little irritated his partner didn't realize they were staying in the church.

"Oh? But this place is run-down, at least at that other place had comfortable seating and a bar." Kurohime said, trying to convince Ketsueki to leave.

"What are we doing here?" Akihiro asked the two.

Akihiro walked into the church and looked around, he was tired of standing outside.

"We're staying here now Akihiro." Ketsueki said in his normal cool tone of voice.

"Really?" Kurohime asked sadly. "Fine…" She said with a sigh.

---

"Alright, we're here. Objective met." Neku said impatiently. "Why isn't it Day 2 yet?" Neku asked.

"Slow down…Shouldn't you appreciate the break?" Masaru asked.

Masaru was laying down on the ground, his hood was off now, his eyes were closed and he was smiling.

"He should, but he just wants to kill me and save his friends and girlfriend." The voice of Kurohime said.

Neku looked around, until he saw Kurohime standing on top of a building.

"You again!" Neku shouted.

Masaru got up off the ground, his steel bar was still on the ground.

"Huh? Who's she?" Masaru asked, confused.

"She's the one who killed me." Neku explained, holding his Pins.

Kurohime jumped off of the building and landed perfectly, then walked towards Neku and Masaru, who had picked up the steel pipe.

"So, you've already given up on your partner?" She asked Neku.

"What's she talking about?" Masaru asked.

"Yep. Neku only care cares about killing me to save his friends. He doesn't care about you, all he need is a partner." Kurohime said, trying to start a fight between Neku and Masaru.

"Oh well." Masaru shrugged. "I don't care about Neku either, it'd be great to be friends with my partner, but I don't really care." Masaru said, which irritated Neku.

Neku tried to choke Kurohime with one of his pins, but she just smiled.

"Neku you know we can't fight until the seventh day." Kurohime said in a condescending way.

Four Noise appeared by Kurohime, they were purple spiders with blue Noise legs. One of the spiders jumped at Masaru, but he raised his steel pipe at swung it at the spider's legs. The pipe turned into a blade and chopped the Noise's legs off, then Masaru raised his pipe and hit it down on the Goth Spider, smashing it into the ground and destroying it. Neku charged at one of the other spiders and lit it on fire with his Pyrokinesis Pin, but it jumped at him and cut him in the face. Neku shot Force Rounds at the spider, but it jumped away and jumped at him again. Neku raised his hand and chopped it in half with a Shockwave.

The other two Goth Spiders had disappeared, but Neku and Masaru hadn't seen how they left.

"Is that all you have?" Masaru asked, he was smiling smugly.

One of the Goth Spiders landed down on Masaru's head by a purple web.

"Ah!" Masaru shouted as he ran around, the spider was blocking his vision.

The other spider tried to land on Neku's head, but he jumped away. The spider prepared to jump at him again. Sota charged at the spider, killing it.

"Hey Neku!" Nao said, running up behind Sota.

Masaru manged to pull the Goth Spider off of his head and chop it in half. Masaru noticed the two new people, and walked towards them, raising his hand for a hand-shake.

"Hey, I'm Masaru Nakamura." Masaru said.

Sota and Nao shook Masaru's hand, then Sota turned to face Neku.

"I'm Sota."

"I'm Nao, or No-Nao for short."

"Do you know why we haven't gone to the second day yet?" Sota asked Neku.

"No idea, but I think it has something to do with…" Neku was going to point to Kurohime, but she had disappeared.

---

"Alright, it's time for the second day." Ketsueki said to Akihiro.

"How do I do that again?" Akihiro asked, scratching his head.

_VS: Alright, so I've got plans for this story, whether or not I can write the battle scenes well. Anyways, Kurohime might seem to be overpowered, but it will be explained soon. Oh, and the bios of Kurohime, Masaru, and Ketsueki are now on my profile._


	4. Masaru's Memories 1, Friends

_VS: Alright, now a bit about Masaru's past. Oh, and the song for this chapter is Masaru's theme-song, Youth of the Nation by P.O.D. _

Chapter 4, Masaru's Memories 1, Friends:

A few weeks before the present, before Neku and Masaru had met, in a town a short drive away from Shibuya, Masaru was walking through a school building. This Masaru looked different though, he was wearing his hood down, and he had brown eyes instead of his normal red eyes. Unknown to Masaru a man in the UG of that town was watching him, he had shoulder-length, messy black hair, pale skin that looked a bit foggy, and he was wearing a black cloak, and at the bottom his legs and the cloak appeared to be made of smoke. Another abnormal thing about this man was his eyes, instead of normal eyes his eyes glowed red and had no pupils. Part of the man's cloak was torn down his chest, revealing a tattoo of a black skull with red markings. On either side of the skull were two black angel wings.

"I should probably hurry…" Masaru said to himself.

There was less than a minute left until the bell rang, and Masaru's next class was nowhere near where he was.

"What's the rush?" He said aloud, then kept up with his slow pace of walking.

The man in black sighed in irritation, then left to find another, more negative part of the school.

---

Later that day, outside of school in an alley, Masaru was hanging out with three of his friends. One of them had light brown hair and green eyes. He was wearing a blue t-shirt and jeans. One of the other kid had red hair, matching eyes, and he was wearing a yellow jacket and blue pants. The third kid was different than his friends, he didn't look happy, he wasn't laughing or anything, he just looked unhappy and a little suspicious. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, he was wearing a light blue dress-shirt and black dress pants.*

"So have you guys heard anything about the ghost in our school?" Masaru asked his friends.

"Well we have, that doesn't make anything true." The kid with light brown hair said. "That just seems like a dumb story."

"Well today I felt like I was being…Watched. And I was the only one in the hall." Masaru informed his friends, remembering the time before he was in class. "I'm starting to think the stories might be true."

"Well, luckily none of us are dumb as you." The blonde haired kid said.

Two of the kids laughed at what the blonde-haired kid said, but Masaru looked angry.

"Whatever Satoshi…" Masaru said.

"Aw… Did I hurt your little feelings?" The blonde-haired boy, Satoshi, asked Masaru in a mock baby-voice.

With that Masaru punched Satoshi in the face, before Satoshi could hit Masaru back he was interrupted by a scream from the red-haired kid. The red-haired kid fell to the floor, then stood up and ran down the alley, in the opposite direction from where he fell. The boy ran out of the alley, turned the corner, screamed again, then they didn't see him. Masaru ran after the kid, followed by the brown-haired kid and Satoshi. When they turned the corner, they looked around, shouting the red-haired kid's name, but there was no sign of him.

"You see?! The ghost killed our friend!" Masaru shouted angrily.

---

It had been a week since Masaru's friend had disappeared, there had been no phone calls about his absence, and his parents were preparing to call his parents. Masaru was in the upstairs of his house, in his room. He was sitting on his desk, about to cry.

"Dammit, he's really dead." He said, angry and sad at the same time.

He heard his mother walking up the stairs, she opened his door. Masaru looked up at his mom, she looked sad.

"I'm sorry, but they can't find your friend. It's been seven days, he's…Dead." She said to her son.

*_Only one of these characters will actually be important, and they won't be important until later._

_VS: Alright, that ends the first of Masaru's memories. He's kind of got a tragic past._


	5. New Pins

_VS: I've been busy playing RE5 and I've been busy with my KH story. Anyways, I've figured out how to make a battle system I can write better._

Chapter 5, New Pins:

"Akihiro! We need to talk!" Ketsueki shouted from behind the altar.

Akihiro walked out from a room behind the altar.

"What is it?" He asked.

"You didn't give the Players a time limit yesterday. They didn't have to do anything." Ketsueki explained. "Are you really that dumb?" He asked Akihiro rhetorically.

"I don't know." Akihiro replied. "But I'll do better next day."

"Speaking of which, what's the Objective?" Ketsueki asked Akihiro.

"I haven't thought of one yet." Akihiro replied.

"I told you to start thinking of Objectives before we even came here." Ketsueki said, slightly annoyed by Akihiro's stupidity. "Look, I'll just get some powerful Noise to cause chaos, the objective will be to kill them. But before you go, don't kill any powerful Players, we need them." Ketsueki explained mysteriously before leaving the church.

---

Inside his café, Hanekoma heard someone walk inside. He walked out from the back of the café to greet the customer.

"Hello, welcome to…" Hanekoma was cut off when he saw that Albatross was standing in the doorway. "You're a Reaper." He said.

"Very good, any other obvious things you need to point out go ahead, I'll wait." Albatross said with his usual smug smile.

"What the hell do you want?" Hanekoma asked angrily.

"I want Neku to survive more than the day." Albatross responded.

"Why? If you erase him you get to live longer." Hanekoma explained.

"I thought I told you to point out the obvious things before the conversation began." Albatross said to Hanekoma like he was an idiot. "I can't explain everything to you, but I need Neku to survive. So I came here to ask you to make some more powerful Pins for him."

"I don't know if I should trust you, but…" Hanekoma said.

---

"A dream? That's never happened before?" Masaru thought while he woke up.

"The objective hasn't come in yet." Neku said impatiently.

"Then we might as well relax." Masaru said calmly.

Masaru laid back down on the floor, but as soon as he got comfortable his cellphone beeped.

"Erase the Noise that Ke….Erase the Noise in Tipsy Tose Hall, Spain Hill, and Towa Records. You have three hours, fail and face erasure." Neku read aloud.

"That's a pretty odd message." Masaru thought out loud.

"Well, let's go, hurry up lazy." Neku said.

Neku walked towards Tipsy Tose Hall, leaving his partner behind.

---

When Neku arrived, Masaru a minute behind him, he looked around, then used his Player Pin to search for Noise. He saw the regular Noise, and one very large Noise Symbol, it looked similar to a skull.

"That must be it." Neku said.

"Wait!" A voice commanded.

Neku stopped using his Player Pin to look for the source of the voice. Neku noticed that Masaru had finally caught up, but the voice came from Albatross, standing in the middle of the street holding something in his hands.

"Another Reaper? You can't touch us." Neku said defensively.

"He could touch us, just not hurt us…I think." Masaru said.

"I don't want to hurt you, right now you're too weak to defeat that Noise." Albatross said smugly.

"What do you mean help?" Neku asked.

"Are you gonna' fight the Noise for us?" Masaru asked hopefully.

"No, but I can help Neku. I have new Pins for him." Albatross then tossed the Pins in his hand to Neku.

"What about me?" Masaru asked. "Do I get a present?" He asked.

"No, I know for a fact you help yourself." Albatross looked Masaru in the eyes while he said this, causing Masaru's normally relaxed and cheerful eyes turned serious.

Neku examined his Pins, there were six. One had the design of two crossed golden swords with a blue background, another had a black and red background and a dark red spiked spiral on it. A third had the design of a tree in a brown background, while a fourth had the design similar to static on a television with a white zig-zag on it. The last two had the design of a dark purple and red fireball, and a mixture of blue, purple, and silver with an eye on it.

"What makes you think I need your help?" Neku asked.

"You're weak, you won't last unless you use these Pins." Albatross said. "If you don't believe me try them on your new opponent." Albatross said.

While Neku thought over the situation, Masaru already used his Player Pin to confront the large Noise. Neku and Masaru saw their opponent, a large purple moth with two blue Noise wings.* Neku growled at his partner, then looked through his new Pins. He decided to use the golden sword one, the Holy Swords, making two golden energy swords appear in Neku's hands. Neku lunged at the moth in the air, then slashed at it with his swords, slicing into the moth. It flapped its wings, sending Neku to the floor. He stood up, the Holy Swords disappeared, and he brought out the eye Pin, the Third Eye. Neku's body glowed blue, purple and silver, and he floated slightly above the floor. He thought, and a large chunk of the ground below him lifted up. He tossed the ground chunk at the moth, knocking it to the floor. Masaru smacked the moth in the head a few times, until its eyes glowed and two laser beams knocked him backwards. Neku used the fireball pin, Hellfire. Dark purple and red fire appeared at Neku's fingertips, so he pointed his pointer finger at the Thrasher Moth. A large fireball shot at the Thrasher Moth, creating a huge hole in its stomach. Masaru cut off the tip of one of its wings, causing it to fall to the floor, then rise up. The Thrasher Mother created more lasers which hit Neku in the stomach. He used the tree pin, the Terra Life. Tree roots appeared at Neku's feet, healing him. Neku used the dark red spiral pin, the Dark Cannon. Three dark red spiked rings floated around Neku's right arm, and he pointed it at the Moth, which Masaru was hitting madly. A large ball of red energy hit the Thrasher Moth in its damaged wing, destroying it. The Thrasher Moth fell to the ground, and Neku used his final Pin, the Reality Crusher. Neku's body turned into a static silouhette, and several zig-zags** shot out of his hand at the fallen Noise. The Thrasher Moth turned into Static, and Neku squeezed the pin, crushing the Thrasher Moth, erasing it.

Neku and Masaru appeared back in the streets.

"You're right…" Neku said, apparently to no one because Albatross was gone.

_VS: And so ends that chapter, the next one will focus on Ai and Mina and Sota and Nao fighting the other Noise._

* I got the idea from looking at my Silence of the Lambs poster.

**Like the things in hospitals that show people's heart beats.


End file.
